"It remains to be seen if Sepp Kuss will be a factor in the GC after that time trial" - Phillipa York's analysis of Vuelta a Espana GC following huge raid

The Vuelta a Espana was turned on it's head on the sixth stage. A huge breakaway stacked with GC contenders stood out and gained time on the favourites, whilst behind the victory contenders also dealt each other blows on the tough slopes of Javalambre.

"First there were two, in Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard. Now Sepp Kuss has been added to the equation. By putting Soudal-Quickstep under the cosh from the very start of Thursday’s stage, Jumbo have managed to place the American back in the overall fight and expose Evenepoel’s relative weakness on the steepest slopes," York said in a column for Cyclingnews.

The race's nature has changed and although the gaps are not overly big, now Lenny Martínez finds himself in the lead of the race, but Sepp Kuss follows right after and still carries a sizeable gap over Remco Evenepoel. How far or well the American can go is a question that only the road will tell, but as it stands he's become a very important pawn for Jumbo-Visma to race defensively.

"Lenny Martinez’s time in the race lead is a big thing for the young French climber and Groupama-FDJ but I doubt he’ll be too much of a worry in the eyes of those who are thinking of the podium places in Madrid," York argues. "Like Enric Mas and Mikel Landa, that individual time trial is likely to see to heap of time lost to those who excel in the discipline."

The time-trial will likely balance the differences, however there are still mountains to climb until then. It is a brutal race however with plenty mountain stages and only two have been raced so far. She argues that there is no reason yet to make conclusions.

"It remains to be seen if Sepp Kuss will be a factor in the GC after that time trial, and we shouldn’t discount the UAE Team Emirates duo of Juan Ayuso and João Almeida, or for that matter Can Uijtdebroeks and his Bora-Hansgrohe team leader Aleksandr Vlasov. None of them are out of the overall battle just yet even if they aren’t the ones making the decisions at the moment."